Rossland – On May 19, the Product Packaging and Distribution Workshop, one of Tourism BC’s Business Essentials Programs, was delivered to a very keen and enthusiastic group. The workshop was hosted by Tourism Rossland and the 30 participants included local accommodation providers, attractions, historical and cultural operators as well as representatives from neighbouring communities.
The key take-aways from the workshop:
Trends have shifted from how and why people travel and how they research and book their vacations. Many trends were explored including the focus on wellness, eco-travel and new booking trends from grandparents travelling with grandchildren to ‘tweeting’ your message to the world.
Data collection is necessary activity in product planning and development but is often a tedious and time consuming task. By accessing all kinds of free resources, great insight can be gained into both local and world markets. Capturing your own data with on-line tools can provide very specific research and detail. Inexpensive survey tools exist to make the task extremely easy for the collector and appealing to the user.
Culinary capers to romantic rock climbing … all have a place in the world once you’ve identified your unique offering to the world and found your unique customers. In Rossland, they looked at bundling the raw, untouched outdoors with pampering and comfort, offering local history with a modern day twist and preserving youth for the baby boomers. Packages included the unique, appealing aspects of the region and gave visitors a reason to choose the area or a great reason to come back.
Marketing on a shoe’s string is an art and a business life-line for many. There are many free ways to find new customers and communicate with past fans. Facebook strategies, tantalizing tweets on Twitter and free press releases were just a couple of the 10 free ideas explored.
The Regional Destination Marketing Organization (Kootenay Rockies Tourism) plays a very important role in developing new customers to the region and promoting new and existing products to those customers. They can help you determine the marketing strategies that would work best for your business and guide you as you move from regional marketing to the international market.
One of the best parts of the workshop was working together to enhance the entire region through innovation, intriguing product and collaborative marketing.
To do list:
Keep websites updated so when the region is mentioning you to tour operators, media, etc., your website is ready to shine!
Register your business (free) with Kootenay Rockies Tourism so you can be kept up-to-date on the regional activities. You’ll also receive information on Marketing Opportunities to promote your product and news about your business; some of these are completely free.
Check out the Tourism Business Essentials series of guides and workshops which provides tourism operators with valuable information on key aspects of running a successful tourism business. Developed in partnership with the tourism industry, these informative how-to guides are easy to read, easy to understand, and are must haves for any business competing in today’s dynamic tourism market.
